Consumers wishing to print digital photographs have the option to visit public printing kiosks located, for example, in drug stores or in shopping malls, with the storage devices of the consumers containing files of the photographs. Example storage devices commonly accommodated by printing kiosks are SD cards and Universal Flash Drives (“UFDs”). Without waiting for the availability of a store attendant, the consumers may order prints according to their individual needs and desires by using a digital print ordering machine generally known as “photokiosk” and “photo ordering stations”. Photokiosks are supplied, for example, by Mythology Tech Express Inc. and June Systems Co, Ltd.
A typical photokiosk for printing photographs has a host computer and a user console with various ports for connecting the photokiosk's host computer to the consumers' storage media that holds the digital photograph files. Ports on the consoles, such as those for SD cards and UFDs, include relatively deep and delicate sockets that are sensitive to accidental damage and intentional tampering such as attempting to stick sharp objects into the sockets. Given the prevalence though of storage media using such ports, kiosk operators had to accept the risk of damage and tampering if they were to maintain operation of the kiosks. Such problems are the main cause for down-time of such photos ordering systems.
Such a phenomenon is not limited to the scenario of a public printing kiosk for digital files of photographs. For example, consumers wishing to purchase musical files for MP3 players may prefer physical downloading rather than search for a facility to provide Internet connection to an online music vendor. A host equipped to download music files onto consumers' storage media should have suitable ports to accommodate the popular storage media at any given time. An important priority would be to maintain the ports in proper working order to maximize the time that the host is available to serve the consumers. Therefore, even one damaged port has the potential to cause a significant loss of revenue, and this is even more so, especially if the damaged port is designed to accommodate a widely used storage media format. There are other examples of hosts that interface with peripheral devices using ports that are exposed to the public.
In addition, data storage devices such as USB devices, miniUSB cards, SD cards MicroSD cards, Memory sticks, Smart Cards, etc. come with a variety of connectors. Providing a separate socket for each type of connector consumes space on the user console.
A reoccurring need is that there be available a resilient interface between the hosts and the peripheral devices. Such an interface should be less susceptible to damage, whether intentional or inadvertent, and should be compatible with different types of hosts and peripheral devices.